Once upon a time, in 1837, a baby boy was born to two handloom weavers in Bolton, Lancashire. His name was Thomas Moran. That baby would be nicknamed “Father of the National Parks” and his paintings would become famous. But all that would happen once he was an old man. His story begins in his early childhood….

When Tom was about seven years old, his parents were, unfortunately, forced out of their jobs due to the rapid industrialization of nineteenth century England mechanizing the weaving process. Desperate, the whole family moved to Kensington, Pennsylvania.  Inspired by American culture, the little boy began to draw. It started as doodling, progressed into sketching, and when he was older, painting.

Thomas didn’t start painting seriously until he was 16, while he was working as an apprentice to a wood-carving firm. Feeling as if he was destined for more, Moran decided to travel. He went to Lake Superior and London, studying famous artists and sketching. Around the time he got back, fur traders were returning from the West telling stories of geysers shooting fifty feet into the sky, scarlet colored rocks, hot springs bubbling in a rainbow of colors…. America was skeptical. Could such out-of-this-world wonders truly exist? Thomas Moran wanted to know, but he needed to wait for the right opportunity…

His opportunity came in 1871 when he joined a government-sponsored expedition to the West. The survey was to be led by Ferdinand Hayden. The mission: help convince Congress to support a bill in protecting Yellowstone. Hayden knew Congress would be easier to persuade if they saw pictures, so he brought along a painter and a photographer. That painter turned out to be Thomas Moran himself.

The expedition was a vast one, covering hundreds of miles. The paths were rugged and traveled on horseback. Even though Moran was weak and inexperienced when it came to horsemanship, he did know a thing or two about friendship. He and the photographer Hayden had employed, William Henry Jackson, became friends. Jackson took photos, Moran painted. It may have been a rough journey, but the two of them were doing what they loved best. It was a work-together-or-bust kind of situation. Moran helped Jackson with his frames, and Jackson’s pictures provided Moran with details for his paintings.

This first journey to the west wouldn’t be Moran’s last. Endlessly fascinated with the bright sunsets and colorful canyons, Thomas volunteered for many more expeditions. However, no one was ignoring his talent over in the East. He returned home and found new things awaiting him.

When the expedition returned, Congress bought two of Moran’s paintings- “The Great Canyon of the Yellowstone” and “The Chasm of the Colorado” – and hung them in The Capitol as a tribute to Yellowstone. Moran began making a good deal of money thanks to his newfound fame. Rich or not, Thomas Moran was still an artist. Even though he had enough money to retire to a nice log cabin in the mountains, which he would quite liked to have done, he was still an artist. This meant that he had a spark of an idea burning in his mind….

Moran flew to Europe again, this time to Italy. He was planning to paint scenes of Venice, and with all that money, he figured he should at least be able to paint the real thing. Once he arrived in Venice he became aware of a slight problem. He didn’t speak Italian, and they didn’t make language pocket-handbooks in the nineteenth century. Always the optimist, Moran settled for his Plan B: he would buy his own gondola to paint and take it back with him to the States!

This he did. His Italian scenes turned out beautifully, and almost every painting has a certain gondola featured in it. Unfortunately, Thomas Moran was getting old- like it or not. That artist’s spark hadn’t gone out, but painting with arthritis could be tricky.

Moran had not forgotten the West or the amazing people that lived there. He decided to move there, settling in Santa Barbara, CA. Still, he had the heart of an artist and he could not give up painting. Soon he was taking regular trips to Acoma and Laguna pueblos to paint the Native Americans living there. After a long and successful life, Thomas Moran died naturally in 1926.

Thomas Moran was a talented painter. His works influenced the creation of the first National Park, Yellowstone. Though weak and a little eccentric, he overcame bad horsemanship skills and ended up taking the journey of a lifetime. Two of his finest works are hanging in the Capitol Building right now.

I conclude with this: “Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.”

-Amy Lowell
US critic & poet (1874 – 1925)

PICTURES:

Paintings by Moran

—–

Photo of Thomas Moran

Other

A camp that Jackson, Hayes, and Moran stayed in

Photograph of William Henry Jackson